The Before Principle

The Before Principle 2 Kings 5:14NKJ

What would you do for a healing, an answer, or maybe peace in you or your family?

So he (Naaman) went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

2 Kings 5:1-14NLT The king of Aram had great admiration for Naaman, the commander of his army, because through him the Lord had given Aram great victories. But though Naaman was a mighty warrior, he suffered from leprosy. 2 At this time Aramean raiders had invaded the land of Israel, and among their captives was a young girl who had been given to Naaman’s wife as a maid. 3 One day the girl said to her mistress, “I wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria. He would heal him of his leprosy.” 4 So Naaman told the king what the young girl from Israel had said. 5 “Go and visit the prophet,” the king of Aram told him. “I will send a letter of introduction for you to take to the king of Israel.” So Naaman started out, carrying as gifts 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold, and ten sets of clothing. 6 The letter to the king of Israel said: “With this letter I present my servant Naaman. I want you to heal him of his leprosy.” 7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes in dismay and said, “This man sends me a leper to heal! Am I God, that I can give life and take it away? I can see that he’s just trying to pick a fight with me.” 8 But when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes in dismay, he sent this message to him: “Why are you so upset? Send Naaman to me, and he will learn that there is a true prophet here in Israel.” 9 So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and waited at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 But Elisha sent a messenger out to him with this message: “Go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River. Then your skin will be restored, and you will be healed of your leprosy.” 11 But Naaman became angry and stalked away. “I thought he would certainly come out to meet me!” he said. “I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the Lord his God and heal me! 12 Aren’t the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than any of the rivers of Israel? Why shouldn’t I wash in them and be healed?” So Naaman turned and went away in a rage. 13 But his officers tried to reason with him and said, “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something very difficult, wouldn’t you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply, ‘Go and wash and be cured!’” The Text from the NLT again, 2 Kings 5:14 So Naaman went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times, as the man of God had instructed him. And his skin became as healthy as the skin of a young child’s, and he was healed!

Hear the CHARACTER OF CAPTAIN NAAMAN.

1. He was Captain of the Host of King of Syria.

He was the general - a man who had been successful in life. Disciplined. Trained, a leader. He had risen to the top of his profession.

2. He was also a servant.

3. He was a great man with his Master.

4. He was an honorable man.

5. He was a mighty man of valor. (A warrior.)

. . .but he was a leper. (Say, unclean.)

A letter in a can tied to an old water pump on a trail across the Amargosa Desert read as follows: This pump is all right as of June 1932. Under the white rock I buried a bottle of water, out of the sun and cork end up. There’s enough water in it to prime the pump, but not if you drink some first. The well has never run dry. Have faith. When you get watered up, fill the bottle and put it back like you found it for the next feller. - Desert Pete

PS. Don’t go drinking up the water first. Prime the pump with it, and you’ll get all you can hold.

Q&A: If you were a lonely traveler shuffling down that parched desert trail with your canteen bone-dry, would you trust this guy Desert Pete? There are no guarantees that what he claims is true. It’s a risk. Do you do it?